Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Monday, 24 May 2021

Seanad Committee on the Withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union

Citizens' Rights in Northern Ireland Post Brexit: Discussion

Photo of Lisa ChambersLisa Chambers (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

That is a fair assessment. Much of the focus has been on trade and the impact on businesses. We have had some discussions and conversations about the impact on citizens' rights but Ms Gibney is correct that there is a deficit in the level of awareness among citizens as to the true impact. When the pandemic settles, we will get back to focusing more on Brexit and its true impact will become apparent over the coming months and years. The committee will certainly take those comments on board.

On behalf of the committee, I thank the three commissioners for being with us this afternoon. It has been a good discussion and they have raised interesting issues. They will not be solved quickly but they can be solved and by discussing and debating them, we will get that bit closer to solving them. The area of citizens' rights on the island will form a significant part of our report and, in particular, the impacts flowing from Brexit on areas around the Border and in the North. I thank the commissioners and committee members for their attendance.

It is anticipated that our final draft report will be available from Tuesday, 15 June. We will have a couple of meetings to complete beyond that date but the committee will start working through that draft and making the necessary amendments and changes. We are looking at a target release date for our interim report of the week of Monday, 5 July. I ask members to take note of a number of dates. We will be looking to have private meetings to go through the draft report, line by line, on 19 and 26 June, and 3 July. Those dates are Fridays and most members should be available. We will then look to report in the week of 5 July, before we head into summer recess.

If there are no questions on the above, I take it that the proposed schedule is agreed. If there are any issues at all, members can always contact me or the clerk to the committee and we can work through them. Those are provisional dates to give people advanced notice.

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